Iran's Ahmadinejad to tour Lebanon-Israel border

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is currently on a visit in Lebanon. He is set to come close to the Israeli-Lebanese border causing some to call his visit a "provocation." For the most part, Ahmadinejad has been received warmly by the Lebanese public, his motorcade being showered with rice and flowers on his way to the meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. Ahmadinejad, whose government has been financially supportive of Lebanon during Hezbollah's war with Israel in 2006, said that Iran would help Lebanon "against animosities, mainly staged by the Zionist regime," in reference to Israel. Speaking on her visit in Kosovo, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Washington rejects any efforts "to destabilise or inflame tensions" in Lebanon. These sentiments were echoed by members of Lebanon's parliamentary majority who claim that Ahmadinejad is trying to transform Lebanon into "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean."

By Szymon Kesek